Passenger ferry reaches Port Townsend without further incident

Charlie Bermant / Peninsula Daily News
The Rich Passage 1 on Monday, when it ran aground near Port Hadlock. The Kitsap Transit-owned ferry was towed the rest of the way to Port Townsend on Tuesday.

BREMERTON - At high tide Tuesday morning, Kitsap Transit's passenger-only ferry Rich Passage 1 floated free of a beach it accidentally found the previous day and completed its trip to Port Townsend.

The wake research boat, en route to the shipyard for a winter haul-out and maintenance, got stuck at the entrance to Port Townsend Canal, a narrow strait that separates Indian Island and the Jefferson County mainland. At about 6 a.m., when it was still dark, the ferry's captain was confused by a red channel marker. When returning from sea, red buoys should be on the right of the vessel — red right returning. That wasn't true in this case, said Kitsap Transit executive director John Clauson, who was on the boat.

Instead of traveling down the channel, the boat, in the dark, headed toward a sand spit. The skipper saw it and reversed the engines, softening but not preventing the landing.

"We were both watching carefully and he just missed the channel markers," Clauson said. "We got on the wrong side and didn't notice until the beach was right in front of us."

As a precaution, at about 6 a.m. Tuesday, the boat was towed the final short leg to Port Townsend in case debris had gotten into the engines.

The Coast Guard and a representative for All American Marine of Bellingham, the boat's builder, inspected the boat and found no damage other than scraped paint on the bottom, which was going to be recoated during the haul-out anyway, Clauson said.

Clauson's 26-year-old son had volunteered to ride along and help keep the boat centered as the captain guided it into a tight concrete structure in Port Townsend, Clauson said.

Only two crew members are required when the ferry isn't carrying passengers or traveling at high speed, said Clauson, who has made the trip several times. The skipper has been piloting the boat since it hit the water.

The navigational markers are fine, said Petty Officer Nathan Bradshaw. The Coast Guard didn't test for alcohol or drug use because the incident didn't meet the parameters — injury or death, damage of $100,000 or more, or pollution, Bradshaw said.

As is its policy, Kitsap Transit did perform a test for alcohol or drug use, Clauson said.

The cause of the accident remains under investigation, Bradshaw said.

Kitsap Transit completed wake testing on Rich Passage 1, including four months while carrying paying passengers, on Nov. 2. Preliminary results indicate the catamaran's wake is small enough to operate in Rich Passage, but scientists continue to analyze data and will produce a final report in March. They'll have a preliminary report Friday at the ferry subcommittee meeting.